The results of elections across England on May 6 have strengthened the hand of Boris Johnson's Conservative government and tipped the Labour Party's new leadership under Sir Keir Starmer into crisis.

The Conservatives took the northern industrial seat of Hartlepool from Labour for the first time since 1959. Although their vote share barely increased from the 2019 General Election, it was enough for victory.

Labour polled less than 9,000, a drop of some 6,000. Yet, at a previous General Election in 2017, the party led by Jeremy Corbyn had retained Hartlepool with 22,000 votes in an area that had voted heavily in 2016 for Britain to leave the European Union.

Despite Labour having campaigned in that referendum to remain in the EU, the party had subsequently promised in 2017 to respect the Brexit result.

However, what happened instead was a three-year campaign by many Labour MPs to sabotage the democratic decision to leave the EU. At the 2019 General Election, with Labour then calling for a second referendum in an effort to cancel the result of the first, Hartlepool almost fell to the Conservatives.

As it was, Boris Johnson's pledge to "Get Brexit Done" won 52 other Brexit-supporting seats from Labour, as several million Labour voters boycotted the ballot or turned to the Conservatives or the Brexit Party.

On May 6, Labour's candidate in Hartlepool was a former MP who had fought hard to block Britain's exit from the EU. Here as in other industrial areas of the midlands and the north of England, former Labour supporters continued to punish the party for its Brexit betrayal.

Many are well aware that, as a member of Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet, Keir Starmer had been the chief architect of Labour's disastrous EU policy change. Under his leadership on May 6, the party lost 327 council seats and control of eight local authorities. The Conservatives won an extra 235 seats – mostly from Labour – and gained control of 13 councils.

In Scotland, Labour stood still. The Scottish National Party tightened its grip on the Scottish Parliament and insists it has a mandate for a second Scottish independence referendum.

Labour's only bright spots were in Wales and some northern English cities where the party's local leaders enjoy a reputation for competent governance and progressive policies.

The Welsh Labour government headed by Mark Drakeford, a Corbyn supporter, has taken strong action to combat COVID and even transferred Cardiff Airport and some railway services into public ownership.

Mayors such as Andy Burnham in Manchester and Paul Dennett in Salford, where Labour actually gained council seats, likewise advocate policies of public intervention to protect jobs and public services. Elsewhere in England, the Conservatives profited at Labour's expense for four main reasons.

First, there is the "feel-good" factor arising from Britain's successful roll-out of COVID vaccines. Memories of the government's disastrous mishandling of the pandemic last year have been pushed into the background.

Second, Chancellor Rishi Sunak's £352 billion aid package has staved off a catastrophic collapse of the British economy, although the Communist Party warns that workers will eventually be presented with a huge financial bill.

Third, Boris Johnson is still widely credited for "getting Brexit done." People on both sides of the EU divide were fed up with the years of uncertainty.

Fourth, Labour simply had little to offer. Keir Starmer has dumped his pledges to reunite the party and build on the progressive policies developed during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. His purge of Corbyn and other socialists demoralized many party activists.

Labour's decision to concentrate its fire on the sleazy relationships between the Conservative government and its millionaire business backers proved ineffective. Afterall, many people expect nothing more from the Conservatives. 

Starmer's failure to deliver electoral gains has damaged his credibility within and beyond Labour's ranks.

Soon, he will face another by-election in another northern pro-Brexit parliamentary constituency. Labour is defending a small majority against the Conservatives in Batley and Spen. Losing the seat could spark a leadership challenge to Starmer, although the left will have an uphill struggle to seize back control since thousands of disillusioned activists have already left the party.

In the meantime, emboldened by electoral success, the Johnson government has unveiled a new legislative program. It mixes substantial state intervention in the economy with reactionary measures to expand the powers of the police and intelligence services, restrict the right to protest and curb immigration.

New electoral laws will favor Conservative candidates in future mayoral elections and enable the government to call an early election – probably before the public is presented with the bill for COVID.

In the meantime, Keir Starmer has promised a rewrite of Labour's program. That is unlikely to be an improvement.

Robert Griffiths is a former Senior Lecturer in Political Economy and History at the University of Wales and currently the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain.

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